Today I finish up my third round of herbal antibiotic treatment for SIBO.  In June I started taking Berberine Complex and AlliMed after a bad relapse in May.  This didn’t do much so I switched to a higher dose AlliMed and Neem protocol in July and did two 30-day rounds of it.   The first 30 days I couldn’t handle the Neem too well and had to cut it in half but for the last 30 days I decided to just suck it up and deal with the discomfort that the Neem caused and ride it out sinec I was assured it would make a difference.  Luckily the upset stopped after a week and I’ve actually felt petty good for much of the last month.  I still have a few symptoms after dinner each day so I think the SIBO isn’t quite knocked out but is teetering a bit.

The plan now is to stop all herbals for a week and then retest on the 15th after doing a 2-day prep to see if I can get a very clean test.  I will start taking Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) tonight to help with small intestine motility.  It is the only Rx motility agent that I trust and in my case can do double duty by also being a good way to battle the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) that is causing all sorts of havoc in my body.    On top of the LDN I’m using Ginger, 5-HTP, Acetyl-l-Carnatine and Magnesium still to keep things moving through my system.   The first three of these are my homemade MotilPro since I had to stop the pre-made capsules due to the extra B-6 they were giving me.

I had a reaction possibly to excess B-6 and my neuropathy had gotten way worse in late July.  My feet were number, painful and I had burning sensations from the top of my feet all the way up to my knees.  For a week it hurt to walk.  I went in for an hour long torture session known as a Nerve Conduction Study which basically involved sending electrical shocks down my arms and legs repeatedly.  This test was described as “uncomfortable but usually tolerated” which sounds like the way Dick Cheney described waterboarding.  Well to put it mildly it sucked.  This was followed by a doctor sticking needles into muscles and measuring conductivity there, luckily this part was about the same as accupuncture and not bad at all after being subjected to a few dozen shocks on each limb.  Results of the test and my follow up showed that the neuropathy is limited to small fiber nerves which is good, no damage to the main pathways.  The neurologist thought maybe I’d OD’ed on B-6 between the Meyer’s cocktail, the MotilPro and my B-6 heavy diet so I’m off the IVs and MotilPro.   Luckily the burning and pain went away in a few weeks and my feet have settled back to a normal state of just being numb.

My diet has expanded somewhat over the last month which is  good.  I’m able to handle a few more veggies – eggplant, rutabagas, yellow squash, winter squash and a small amount of tomatoes.  I also am able to eat some baked goods with nut & coconut flours now.  My diet is still very fat and meat heavy since I just have no source of really high carb food but I’m definitely eating more variety in the meat department with more steaks and my new favorite food Cracklin’ Chicken from Nom Nom Paleo.   I’m going to try and experiment with meal spacing taking an idea from the Wahl’s Paleo Plus protocol and going to two meals a day for a while to see if that helps.  I just need to eat a huge breakfast and dinner each day and forgo lunch.  I think my slight discomfort after dinner is due to the fact that 4-5 hour meal spacing just isn’t quite enough for me and I end up with excess material that the bacteria can ferment after dinner.  Eating two meals 12 hours apart should test that theory.  I already get half my daily calories at breakfast so I don’t expect this to be too difficult.

I’ve also been able to increase my activity levels quite a bit.  I’m walking over 40 miles a week now, way up from my old < 20 miles a week and I’m bicycling some on top of that.  I’ve managed to hike up to 5 miles with good elevation gain.   Even with this amount of activity my weight is still ticking up in general.  I hit a high of 154.6 last week but it has dropped back to 153.4 this week but seems to stair-step up so maybe I’ll break 155 on the next uptick.

After I get back the next test results I decide what, if anything, to do.  If I come out with a clean test I get to do nothing but continue with the SIBO Diet and motility agents.   I’m not really expecting this.  The most likely scenario is that the test shows a reduction in bacterial levels and if it is significant then I’ll probably do another 30-day round of AlliMed and Neem starting in October.   If the results are bad then my only real alternative is to do a 10-14 day Elemental Diet where I basically give up food but take in liquid nutrition only.  This is very effective on getting rid of SIBO but also would be a weight challenge for me and takes its toll on one’s overall well being.   I really don’t want to go there unless I need to since I’m finally making gains in the weight and energy departments.